Refrigerator construction



Nov. 5,1929. c. L. MITCHELL 1,734,771

REFRIGERATOR CONSTRUCTION FiledApril 4, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet l Inveniop Chauncey L.. Mli'che ll Nov. 5, 1929. c. L. MITCHELL REFRIGERATOR CONSTRUCTION lnvenfor.

chaunc L. Mitchell b ZZMMXM At tys Patented Nev. 5, 1929 UNI-TED sTATs GHAUECEY L. MITCHELL, or wnicnns'rea,

ATIOH CORPORATION or AMERICA, or

or cnusn'r'rs Application filed April 4,

ablin the'cham r to be taken apart and remove with sli ht loss whenever desired.

The object o the invention is further to provide a heat insulated wall sectionunit of novel construction in which the section presents a thick cork board core and thin remforced cement faces secured to the core, in such a manner as to guard against the transmission of heat from one face to the other.

The object of the invention is further to provide such a 'wall section unit that a plurality of such sections may be assembled and clamped together to form a wall without air aces between the sections all in a firm and .I'l d manner.

e object of the invention is further to" provide means for securing such wall section units together in a limited space.

The invention has for its further object" to provide a construction of heat insulated chamber presenting high insulating properties, composed of standard'wall section units and readily assembled in any desired location.

These and other objects and features of the invention will appear more fully from the accompanying description and drawings and will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

The drawings illustrate a preferred form of rectangular heat insulated wall section unit d a simple type of chamber, adapted for refrigeration purposes, built up from such units. But it will be understood that this is merely illustrative of a wide variety of constructions in which the various novel mensions readilyeand easily and further en-- PA ENT OFFICE.

massacnnsn'r'rs, assrenoa 'ro nnrnrerm- BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION REFRIGERATOR CONSTRUCTION 1928. Serial N'o. 267,266.

features of the invention maybe embodied.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 1s va view in perspective partially.

broken away of one form of wall section unit t embodying the invention.

. Fig. 2 is an enlarged view taken in transverse cross section and with the central portion-broken away of the construction shown in Fig. 1.

lfig. 3 is a view in elevation of one form of metal anchor employed.

Fig. 4 is a detail in cross section showing a 'oint between two adjacent section units.

ig. 5 is a view in'perspective of a portion: a

of a rectangular chamber such as .a built in refrigerator made up of'wall section units and embodying fur t r features of the invention.

'Fig. 6 is a view in side elevation partially cut away and showing three abutting wall section unitswith a preferred form of means for clamping and securing them together.

' Fig. 7 is a perspective view showing one form of construction chamber. I

Flg. 8 1s a detall in vertical cross sectlon at one corner, of the showing a connection between a vertical and horizontal tie rod.

this invention may be employed with advantage in a wide variety of constructions wherein it is desirable-or necessary to insu-- While, aspointed .out, the construction of" late against the passage of heat through it:

chamber wall, it is more particularly designed for built-in refrigerator chambers of relatively large size such as used for commercial purposes. An important feature of the invention resides in the construction of a l wall section unit so designed that a very small number of standard sizes of these units'will enable practicall any desired size and shape of chamber to e readily and easily constructed.

In the construction of a form of chamber such as that illustrated in Fig. 5, two standard sizes of wall section unit, one size for the side walls and the other size for the top and bottom walls, will sufice and by providing section units for the top and bottom walls of different standard len hs, the size and shape of the chamber may e varied indefinitely. While it may be desirable to provide special sizes of units, it will be evident that the main portion of a chamber of ractically any desired size and shape may built up from a very'few standard sizes of wall section units.

A preferred form of 'wall section unit embodying the invention is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. The main heat insulating quality of this unit, is secured by the core. which is composed of coarsely granulated cork compressed into board form and commercially available. This cork board core 1 is cut to the desired dimensions of the rectangular section unit, for example, substantially 1' in width and of the standard lengths desired for the required height and required width of the chamber. This core should be relatively thick and a thickness of 4" has been found desirable for ordinary refrigerator chamber construction. Each of the faces of the core has secured thereto a relatively thin layer of reinforced cement. As the purpose of these layers is to impart the desired finish to the exterior and interior surfaces of the wall and to assist jn preventin'gpassa e of air through the wall, and. as. the wa ls are not intended to carry any.

unusual load, these surface layers of reinforced cement may often be quite thin. Such layers 4" in thickness have been found practical for many purposes, but by in- I structure which shall present the required;

, posite :face and thus serve as heat transmitting agencies.

provides metal anchors at each face of the They are interlocked with the reinforce 2- by having their legs passed therethrough.

creasing the thickness and the character of quite to, the edges of the surface or face of the cork board. This metal reinforce must be wellsecured to the cork board bothto prevent separation of the cement face from the cork and also to secure a unitary strength. But it is of great importance that the securing means employed shall not extend from one face of the unit to the op- The inventiontherefore unit interlocked with the sheet metal rein force and extending part way only throu 'h the cork board core and embedded in tie core and so arranged as to be entirely out of contact with the similar anchors extend ing from the opposite face. Various anchors may be emplo ed for this purpose. In the construction s own in Figs. land 2, these anchors are in the form of metal staples 3.

The legs of the staples. extend in various directions, but in each case at an acute angle to the face of the unit. Thus the staples grip the reinforce firmly to the cork board and as they are arranged so as neither to pass entirely through the cork core nor to come into contact with the staples at the opposite face, there can be no transmission of the increased gripping function of the.

bars.

The cement layer 6 at each face of the unit is formed in the usual manner and fills the interstices of the reinforce and the interstices of the cork board at the surface so that the reinforce is embedded in the cement layer and the cement layer is firmly secured to the cork core, This cement layer is finished smooth at the surface and .is preferably made of high grade cement. The edges of the reinforced cement layer," preferably all four edges, but in. any event the two longer edges, do not extend quite-to the edge of the cork board core, so that the core is left projecting slightly beyond the edges of the cement and metal reinforce, as shown at 7. The edges of the cement are also preferably rounded off at-S-J; p

The edges of the cork board core are thus left projectin so that when the wall is built up and the e ges. of adjacent sections abut, the sections may be forced to ether and then clamped, thus compressing tlG COIk at the abutting edges, securing a tight union and eliminating any air spaces, all without danger of straining or injuring the cement faces. I

lVhen the section units have thus been clamped together with the rojecting cork core edges abutting, the litt e space left between the edges of adjacent cement faces is desirl.

led inwith cement, as indicated at ably fi 9 i Fi 4 tinuous wall surface.

thus presenting Y The wall section units as thus constructed a smooth, con

are found to present very substantial strength suflicient for the required purposes. When assembled and clam ed together, these units form awallfvery h1ghly lmpervious to the passage of heat. The wallpresents a neat and pleasing appearance. A chamber of pzacfically any desired-size and sha e may constructed and by. providing mterior columns and girders all within the chamber and thus insulated by the walls from the exterior, the size of the chamber may be extended indefinitely with the use of standard section units.

It is important that the wall section units shall be drawn tightly together and blamped ous means may e employed for this purpose, an important feature of the invention but'prefera resides in a construction of. section unit and an arrangement of tie rods and metal lates by which this result is secured in a simple and efiicient manner.

In carrying out this feature of the invention in its preferred. form, each section unit has the longer edges of the core each provided with a groove 10 extending longitudinally thereof so that when two'se'ctions abut, the grooves of the abutting edges together form a substantially cylindrical bore adapted to receive a tie rod. The core of each section unit is also provided with a plurality of preferabl cylindrical bores extending transverse y therethrough. Two of these transverse bores 11 are preferably located at a distance from the end edges of the section unit equal to one-half the thickness of the unit. There may be as many intermediate bores 12 as desired, although for a wall section of room height, one intermediate bore is found sulficient. The metal tie rods employed in these various bores are preferably about one-half the diameter of the bores. Thus with tie rods of a diameter of the boresare desirably formed of a diameter of This enables tie rods extending, transversely to each other to a difierent plane from the longitudinal bores ly so that the various bores intersect. In the construction illustrated, the transverse bores such as 11 and 12 extend midway of the core, while the grooves 10 forming'the longitudinally extending bores are slightly nearer one face of the section unit than the other, this ofl'set being preferably about one half the bore diameter.

The main portion of a simple type of rectangular refrigeration chamber is shown in Fig. 5 of the drawing. 'This chamber is shown as composed of but twostandard sizes of wall sectionunits theonly difference between these two'sizesbeing that the top and bottom wall. units are longer than the side wall units; This is secured by having the side wall unitsextend between the top and bottom walls. resting on'the bottom wall and supporting the to wall, but it .is obvious that by employing urther standard sizes various relations between the side, topand I bottom walls maybe secured.

. The reinforced cement facing layer at the topof the bottom wall units may be omitted at the end portions upon which the side wall units'rest and similarly at the bottom of the top wall units where these units rest upon the sidg wall units. This brings cork to cork in contact at all abutting areas and'is-de'sirable where load and strength conditions ermit.

.Inthe construction thus illustrate three ass each other and this result is further facilitated by placing the transverse bores in up and c bottom wall section units 13 are shown which may rest upon a floor. The right, rear and;

left side walls areeach composed of three sections 14, 15 and 16, respectively, and theseside wall section units rest at their edges upon the ends of the bottom units. Three top wall section units 17, of the same size as the bottom units 13, rest at their ends upon the upper edges of the side units. It will thus be seen that wherever units abut, either two edges of cork cores come together or an edge of the cork core of one unit comes against the cement face of another unit. Thus when the units are drawn tightl together and clamped, the

cork edges in eac case are compressed, forming a tight joint and eliminating any air space through the wall. By standardizing the sections with as few units as possible, itfollows that the edges of the cork cores will be exposed at various places in the structure, as, for example, at the ends of the top and bottom Walls. These exposed edges are prefare provided at the ends of the tie rods to enable this to be done.

It is obvious that in assembling'a structure the tie rods would of any substantial size, beof considerable length and when the chamber is constructed inside a building or in a limited space, it is frequentlyimpossible to employ such tie rods. The invention therefore provides another tie rods are made in sections threaded at their ends and connected together by unions, the

several sections being-provided with nuts at their threaded ends so that thewall section units may be set up one ata time, the tie rod sections inserted one-at a tune and thus one feature in which the the adjacent unit. The wall is then setup I' section b sectionwith each section dr'awn' amped'to the precedlng.v Such an- 1515 arrangement is illustratedfin Fig. 6 withre spect to the side wall section'unitsl l. It will be seen. that the tie rod shown is made in sec tions 18 threaded at the ends; anduh'a'vmg threaded unions 19 by which the sections may a be connected. V In setting up such a wall, the

'section 14 at the'left, say, would be set up, the

tie rod section 18 mserted,fwashers 2O placed against the edges of the cork core. and nuts 1 '21 threaded on to the rod and screwed up until the washers 20 are pressed into the cork. The section 14 next tothe-right will then be set up, another tierod section 18 with the union 19 threaded on its end will be placed in thes'ection and the union screwed on to the projecting'end of the tie rodsection '18prowallsection unitgdrawn'up. and clampedto transverse tie rods will be treated in the same 7 way. Thus the wall may be erected section by motion in a very limited space.

It is necessary also to draw and clamp the sections together in the opposite direction or vertically. The vertical tie rods placed in the abutting grooves 10 as the sections are set up are employed for this purpose, but when the structure is bein erected upon a floor, it

is usually impracticfi lower ends of these tie rods. These lower ends may conveniently be secured to a tie rod extending transversely of the bottom, as a shown in Figs. 5 and 8. For this purpose the vertical tie rod 24 is hook-shaped at its lower end and is hooked over a tie rod such as 25. At its upper end the tie rod passes through a metal plate, herein shown as the 25 flange 26 of an'angle iron. The hole in this plate through which a. tie rod 24 passes is somewhat elongated and a nut 27 is placed on the threaded end of the rod. Consequently by tightening up the nut 27, the bottom so well section, side wall section and top wall section are drawn together and clamped. It will be noted here that the lower and upper edges of the cork core of the side wall unit section 14 abut the surfaces of the bottom wall section unit 13 and the top wall section unit 17, thus forming a tight oint and permitting the drawing up of the sections. This construction is repeated at the various joints and preferably as shown the angle iron at the top presents a depending flange 28 which covers up and protects the exposed edges of the cork cores of the to wall section units. This construction is pre erably applied at all the corners excepting at the bottom, where usually a simple flat metal plate 29 'is providedat the sides, thus enabling the bottom wall section units 13.to rest flat on the floor or other supporting structure. Tie rods 25 preferably extend also through the bores be.- tween the top and bottom wall section units and here in these cases nuts are preferably threaded on to both ends of these tie rods, although, if desired, one of the ends may be hooked over the adjacent transverse tie rods. Where necessary, the wall section units are transversely grooved as at 30 to provide for "tie rods which extend across the units. This tie rod construction with the ooves and arranged on the principle escribed enables a chamber readily and easil to be set up with very little special work ing performed, as for such an assembl it is seldom to form any specia bores or to -make1any holes through the reinforced cea ment faces as the wall section units. The

to thread nuts on to the easily set up in a'given location,"but it may doors being illustrated, it wil readily be understood that by following out this eneral principle any desired size or shape 0 chamber may be obtained and doors or window openings may readily be provided by the use of special sections and fittings therefor.

Preferably asset forth, the joints between the cement faces of abutting wall section fi nits are filled in with cement, as shown in i 4. uch a construction is not only-readily and be disassembled with comparative ease, thus rendering the wall section units again available for use in the construction of other chambers with comparatively. little expense. Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new,- and desiredto be secured by Letters Patent, is: I

1. A rectangular heat insulated wall section unit comprising a thick core of. cork board. a reticulated metal reinforce layer on each face of the core, metal anchors at each face interlocked with the reinforce and extending part way only through and embedded in the core out of contact with the anchors extending from the opposite face and a cement layer on each face .of the core with the reinforce and anchorsembedded therein.

2. A rectangular heat insulated wall section unit comprising the construction defined in claim 1, in which the metal anchors are in the form of staples interlocked with the reinforce by having their legs passed therethrough and with the legs extending at an acute angle to the face. i

3. A rectangular heat insulated wall section unit comprising the construction defined the form of staples interlocked with the reinforce by having their legs passed therethrough and with the legs extending at an acuteangle to the face and the legs of the staples at each face extending in a plurality of different directions.

in claim 1, in which the metal anchors arein contact with the anchors extending from the opposite face and a cement layer on each face of the core with the reinforce and anchors embedded therein.

5. A rectangular heat insulated wall secs e two-longer edges of the to receive a tie rod.

7. A rectangular heat insulated wall secticn unit comprising the construction defined in claim 1, in which the edges of the core project slightly beyond the edges of the cement and metal reinforce.

8. A rectangular heat insulated wall section unit comprising a thick core of cork board, and a thin layer of reinforced cement secured to eachface of the core with the' edges of the core projecting slightly beyond the edges of the reinforced cement and with the longer edges of the core presentin a groove extending longitudinally thereo so that when two sections abut a bore isformed to receive a tie rod.

9. A'plurality of rectangular w'all section units having thick resilient cores and thin cement faces with the cores projecting slightly at the lateral edges and with bores extending laterally through the cores,

' threaded clamping sectional rods in said bores, nuts threaded on said rods at the joints between the sections, and unions threaded'to and adjustably connecting adjacent rod sections within the bores whereby in succession and separately eachwall section unit may be drawn up against and clamped tightly to the adjacent unit.

10. A rectangular heat insulated wall section unit comprising a thick core of resilient heated insulated material and a thin layerof reinforced cement secured to each face of the core with the core projecting slightly beyond the reinforced cement faces at the longer edges, the said longer edges of the core each presenting a groove extendin longitudinally thereof so that when two sections-abut, a bore is formed to receive. a tie rod, the said core also having bores extendin therethrou h trans versely of the longer e ges, the sai "grooves and bores offset but intersecting toenablethe tie rods in the bones to cross each other.-v 11. A heat insulated chamber having a top -wall and a side wall each composed of rec tan ular section units each, having a thick cor board core and. cement faces with the core projecting slightly at the lateral edges and in the case of the side wall section units at the top edges also, the ends of the top wall section units resting on the top edges of the sidewall section units, a metal plate on top of the ends of the top wall section units, the abutting edges of the cores of the side wall section 5 units presenting grooves fer l g ing together and clamping wall, bottom wall, metal p ate an transverse tiered. r V .7 I 14. A heat insulated chamber comprising on the ends of all the tr vertical bores, tie rods in said bores'extending. through the metal plate, means'at the ends of the tie rods for drawing together and clamping the to wall section units, the side wall section units and the metal plate, and means for-drawing together and clamping adjacent top wall section units and adjacent side wall section units.

12. A heat insulated chamber having atop wall and a side wall eachcomposed of rectangular section unitseachhavingathickcork board core and cement faceswiththecoreproj ecting slightly at the lateral edges and in the case of the side wall section units at the top edges also, the ends of the top wall section units resting on the top edges of the side wall section units, an angle iron having one flange on top of the ends of the top wall section units and the other flange extending down over the exposed edges of the top wall section units, the abutting edges of the cores.

of the side wall section units presenting grooves forming vertical bores,'t1e rods in, said bores extending through the topflange of the angle iron, means at the ends of the tie rods for drawing together andlclamping the top wall section units, the side wall section units and the angleiron, and means for drawing together and-clamping adjacent top wall section units and adjacent side wall sec-. tion units. 1

13. A heat insulated chamber havin a top wall, a bottom wall and a side wall eac composed of rectani lar section .units each having a thick cor board core and thin reinforced cement surfaces with the core projecting slightly at the edges, the bottom edges of the side wall units resting on the ends of the bottom wall units-and the ends of the top wall units resting on the top edges of the ends of the top wall units, the abutting edgesof the cores of the side wall units pre-' senting grooves forming vertical bores, a tie rod extending transverselythrough the cores of the bottom wall unitsbeneath the side upper. 'ends'of said vertical tie rods for drawthe to wall, side the construction in claim -13, inwhich the vertical tie rods are connected to said transverse tie-rod by means ofhooked ends'on the :wall, tie rodsiinsaid vertical bores connect ed to said transverse tie rod and extending through said metal plate, and means on the vertical tie rods embracing the transverse tie rod.

15. A heat insulated chamber comprising the construction defined in claim 13, together with additional tie rods extending transversely through the cores of the top wall, side wall and bottom-wall units and means for 105 the sidewall units, a metal plate on top of I drawing together and clamping the units of all three walls.

v 16. A heat insulated chamber comprisin the construction defined in olaim 13, in whic the said metal plate is in the form of an angle iron, one flange of which is located on top ofthe ends of the top wall units and the other flange of which extends down over the exposed edges of the'top wall units.

In testlmony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

CHAUNCEY L. MITCHELL. 

